In the fabrication of modern semiconductor devices or integrated circuits (ICs), e.g. chips, one or more contact pads (also referred to as bond pads or, short, pads) may commonly be provided to electrically contact the device or circuit to/from the outside. In this context, effective pad treatment processes (also referred to as pad conditioning processes) may be needed to provide defined pad surfaces that may, for example, be insensitive to corrosion by environmental conditions and suitable for further processing such as wafer thinning, backside metallization, wire bonding, wedge bonding, etc.